This past week, one of the world's most famous and influential men made a major announcement concerning our global future. But you might have missed it because America's national news media was obsessing over President Obama's State of the Union address.

Leftists and progressives believe that the U.S. should become more like Europe. They praise Europe's massive welfare state, socialized medicine and stifling economic regulation and accept its unwillingness to defend itself against barbarism. I wonder whether America's leftists and progressives want to import some of Europe's barbaric extremism associated with its Muslim population.

January 25, 2015|
Walter
Williams
|OPINION

1

Page 1 of 1

Archive By Section - OPINION

One Saturday night in early 1969, as a high school senior who should have known better, I decided to see how fast my 1964 Impala sport coupe could go. Bought for $995 just a few months before, my sweet baby had a 327 V8, a Muncie 4-speed and new state-of-the-art, wide oval, Tiger Paw red-stripe tires on her.

It has been a while since I had a column appear here in The Covington News. I spent the spent the last five months working for Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee and former United States Representative. It was a great experience and I will miss it.

A lot has happened over the last several months. The biggest news, of course, is that Sen. Barack Obama defeated Sen. John McCain in the presidential election.

The moment the TV networks declared Barack Obama the president-elect, something wonderful happened. The perception of the United States changed around the world. America was the international good guy again. There was dancing in the streets of the great cities of Europe, Asia and Africa.

Have you heard that Herb Score passed away just a few days ago? He was the longtime announcer for the Cleveland Indians, calling games mostly on radio from 1964 to 1997. A lot of folks may not know, however, that before the move into the announcer's booth, Score was on the cusp of becoming the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time.

Sometimes, you just have to wonder what people are thinking when they do really stupid stuff.

A man over in the western portion of our state decided to steal some electric wire belonging to the Georgia Power Co. Unfortunately, he thought that the lines were not energized. They were. No charges were filed because it is difficult to file charges against a dead man.

Barack Obama's election has everyone talking about Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. It was 45 years ago when King dreamed of his children being "judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." That is the sort of justice that we all want for our own children.

Well, it's time to move on. But before we turn the page, I would like to congratulate all of the newly elected public officials throughout the county, state and nation. And of course, 145 years since emancipation, 100 years since the founding of the NAACP, 45 years since the March on Washington, 40 years since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., America's 44th president is an African-American. How did this happen? As we seek to understand the new world, let's review the making of this moment.

I don't have much tolerance for rude behavior myself, so it is humiliating to have to beg your indulgence while I ask this rude question. Why in the world do we Georgians trust that our votes are being counted accurately? Because we are too polite to question authority.

I'm thinking today how particularly grateful I am for veterans of the United States armed forces. We'll celebrate Veterans' Day, a legal holiday originally known as Armistice Day, the day after tomorrow. It's my fervent hope that every American will stop what they're doing and, in their own way, honor our veterans. You'd think the reason is blatantly obvious, but it's not. In my experience some folks still just don't get it; they apparently think that all this freedom and justice stuff came about by happenstance.

Now that the fall elections are over, the time has come to separate real citizens from "tickle me voters." The "tickle me voter" can't wait for "their" candidate to take office so they can remind them of campaign promises - campaign promises that almost always involve some benefit for that voter or a member of which they are a group. And what of other groups and interests? Have you ever heard the phrase "root hog or die?"